Patient's question:
At 20 days old, my baby has been born for 20 days and is a full-term infant. However, the jaundice hasn't subsided yet, with both the whites of the eyes and the tip of the tongue still yellow. The baby is eating frequently, and the amount is increasing, with very yellow stools. At birth, the baby weighed 6 jin, and now it's over 7 jin...Doctor's answer:
Hello, it may be physiological jaundice. Drink more water and don't worry too much. All cases of jaundice should be seen by a doctor, preferably a pediatrician.The reason for recurrent physiological jaundice is that after a newborn baby is born, they establish unrestricted breathing, leading to an increase in oxygen concentration in the blood. As a result, excess red blood cells are destroyed and broken down into bilirubin, causing an increase in unconjugated bilirubin in the blood. However, a newborn baby's liver is not yet fully developed, and the excretion of enzymes involved in metabolism is insufficient. Therefore, their ability to process the increased bilirubin in the blood is weak, and they cannot convert unconjugated bilirubin into conjugated bilirubin to be excreted from the body. Instead, the bilirubin accumulates in the skin, causing it to turn yellow.
If a newborn baby shows any of the following symptoms, it may indicate a medical condition:
1. Jaundice appears at birth or within 24 hours after birth.
2. The baby's jaundice is severe, such as when the palms and soles also turn yellow, in addition to the face, torso, and limbs. This is often pathological.
3. The duration of jaundice is prolonged: for full-term babies, it lasts more than 2 weeks or longer; for premature babies, it lasts longer than the typical duration of physiological jaundice, which is more than 3 weeks.
4. The jaundice fluctuates in severity, unlike physiological jaundice, which gradually improves. Or, jaundice reappears after it has faded.
5. The baby also shows signs of poor mental state and appetite, such as reluctance to feed, poor sucking ability, lethargy, vomiting or nausea, fever or hypothermia, pale stools, or enlargement of the liver and spleen. These symptoms are often caused by conditions such as neonatal hemolytic disease, sepsis, hepatitis, congenital cytomegalovirus infection, biliary malformations, or internal bleeding.
Survival care: If there is suspicion of pathological jaundice, seek medical attention early for detailed examination and treatment. Otherwise, the condition may worsen. When blood bilirubin levels are too high, unconjugated bilirubin can bind to brain cells, potentially leading to intellectual developmental disorders.